Do it with Drupal 6

If you missed "Do it with Drupal" roll out the old time machine and go now! No-one asked me to write a review of http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/ . However, in hopes of rectifying this painful omission, I have taken it upon myself to review the USD $95 purchase of access to the amazing video archive. Well, actually, I was so impressed that I decided to share my own experience. I plunked down the admissions fee, and was really blown away by the clarity and precision achieved by a very high critical mass of presenters. For some reason (perhaps because they were being paid), everyone made a very special effort on their preparation. (No need to by cynical, Victor, I am sure DrupalCon DC will be every bit as professional.) And everything is straight from the horse's mouth! Earl Miles on Views 101. Karen Stevenson on CCK from the ground up. Nowhere is this more aparent than with John Albin's Designing with Drupal, which I will review as an example.
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If you missed “Do it with Drupal” roll out the old time machine and go now!

No-one asked me to write a review of http://www.doitwithdrupal.com/ . However, in hopes of rectifying this painful omission, I have taken it upon myself to review the USD $95 purchase of access to the amazing video archive. Well, actually, I was so impressed that I decided to share my own experience.

I plunked down the admissions fee, and was really blown away by the clarity and precision achieved by a very high critical mass of presenters. For some reason (perhaps because they were being paid), everyone made a very special effort on their preparation. (No need to by cynical, Victor, I am sure DrupalCon DC will be every bit as professional.)

And everything is straight from the horse’s mouth! Earl Miles on Views 101. Karen Stevenson on CCK from the ground up.

Nowhere is this more aparent than with John Albin’s Designing with Drupal, which I will review as an example.

The keynote of John’s presentation is giving back to the community. But not just any old thing, but the result of over a decade’s experience, sharing the best with the community in the form of the awesome Zen starter theme, and interspacing the talk with resources from Drupal’s own handbook. So the review of the request cycle for a Drupal page, mixed with Drupal theme architecture, showed the very pages where you can go for refresher moments, or in order to dig deeper than what is allowed by the dynamics of an oral presentation.

But, taking as a telling detail the fact that your Zen sub-theme is automatically compatible with IE 5.5 is simply an expression of how this dude is making his whole career reusable.

The discussion on the layout organization at the heart of the Zen theme also exemplified John’s confidence and experience-based ability in pointing out the deficiencies of other approaches, such as the “Holy Grail”. I had no idea the Zen layout system was so solid and cross-browserful, perhaps due to on and off contact with the Zen theme over its various generations of progeny. But it was explained thoroughly in the talk, and I enjoyed playing around with the concepts by Firebugging the values embedded in a simple HTLM file I quickly fashioned:

The HTML code:



  
    
  
  
    

      
      

        

          content

Screen image:

Zen layout test

The bottom line is that apart from being made to feel that you actually attended the conference (I was unable to due to personal reasons), you come away feeling recharged and absolutely sure that you are in touch with, and have had all your previous knowledge re-aligned with, Drupal state-of-the-art.

Another Big Question that this conference answers is the state of Drupal 6: Drupal 6 is ready. Drupal 6 is awesome. Drupal 6 is a relief. Do it with Drupal 6! The time has come!